KARL
I suppose that's why—
[In a tone as if he didn't think much of it.
—just a windfall.
[Sits on couch.
DEVIL, sits on table L. C.
Last fall, on the sixth of September—I shall never forget the date—something strange happened to me. I put on an old suit I hadn't worn for a long time, and as I picked up the waistcoat, a sovereign fell out. God knows how long it had been there. As I turned this sovereign over to look at it, it suddenly slipped through my fingers and rolled away. I looked and looked, but my sovereign was gone. I become nervous: I can't find the sovereign. I search around for half an hour, three quarters of an hour, still I can't find it. I get angry, I get furious. I shift the furniture—no sovereign. I call my man—we both look everywhere until it's dark. I'm perspiring and trembling—I have but one idea: I must get that sovereign back. Suddenly a suspicion comes into my mind—I get up from my knees. I scream at the top of my voice to my servant: "You thief, you have found the sovereign and put it into your pocket." The man gets angry and answers me disrespectfully. I am about to strike him when I see the blade of a knife shining in his hands. I draw my revolver—
[Takes a shining revolver out of his pocket and rises.
—and with this revolver I nearly killed a man for a sovereign—
[Look from KARL.